The Nature LibraryEN·ES
iNat·86082FamilyActinopterygii358 field observations
  1. Animals
  2. ›Chordates
  3. ›Vertebrates
  4. ›Ray-finned Fishes
  5. ›Dragonfishes and Allies
Dragonfishes
Plate 1 of 4. (c) Gonzalo Mucientes Sandoval, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Gonzalo Mucientes Sandoval · via iNaturalist

Dragonfishes

Stomiidae

Stomiidae is a family of deep-sea ray-finned fish, including the barbeled dragonfishes, that live in all oceans in a wide range of depths. They are quite small, ranging around 15 to 26 centimetres (5.9 to 10.2 in) long, and they exhibit a strong sexual dimorphism. These fish are apex predators and have enormous jaws filled with fang-like teeth; their specially adapted neurocranium and upper-jaw system allows them to open their jaws to more than 100 degrees. This ability allows them to consume extremely large prey, often 50% greater than their standard length.

Continue reading on Wikipedia

2 branches of this family, most-observed first · about 327 known species

See this branch on the Wheel of Life →
§·

Where it lives

Recorded sightings

—

geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.

Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.

§·

In the stacks

Searching the stacks…

Every page naming Stomiidae in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →

This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 86082.